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Inspire. Encourage. Uplift.

Not knowing is part of knowing.

There are sure a lot of people who have all the answers and are only too happy to explain the world to you at length. Puffed up chests, throats clearing, outstretched fingers to point you to the truth as only they can best explain it to you.

But do they have all the answers, really? Isn’t there much about which we must proceed on faith rather than knowledge?

What if God himself were to frame the questions? Then how would these know-it alls fare?

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. (Job 38) He said:

2 “Who is this that obscures my planswith words without knowledge?3 Brace yourself like a man;I will question you,and you shall answer me.

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?Tell me, if you understand.5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!Who stretched a measuring line across it?6 On what were its footings set,or who laid its cornerstone—7 while the morning stars sang togetherand all the angels shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doorswhen it burst forth from the womb,9 when I made the clouds its garmentand wrapped it in thick darkness,10 when I fixed limits for itand set its doors and bars in place,11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;here is where your proud waves halt’?

12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,or shown the dawn its place,13 that it might take the earth by the edgesand shake the wicked out of it?14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;its features stand out like those of a garment.15 The wicked are denied their light,and their upraised arm is broken.

16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the seaor walked in the recesses of the deep?17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?Tell me, if you know all this.

19 “What is the way to the abode of light?And where does darkness reside?20 Can you take them to their places?Do you know the paths to their dwellings?21 Surely you know, for you were already born!You have lived so many years!

Ah, not so smug now, are they, those knowers-of-everything? What anyone knows is but a speck in the vastness of all there is to know.